phoenixfrost

In Asian dramas, loveless marriages are solved by having the couples fall in love with each other 😄

Too bad it still found its way to the toxic kdrama environment. A masterpiece like this is best kept hidden from viewers who not only won't appreciate dramas devoid of cheap sentiment but would also tear them down for inane reasons.

You're right, one can't ignore LMH's presence when he is onscreen. And even though Hansu's constant influence in Sunja's life is not shown, you can feel he knows what she is up to every day since she arrived in Osaka and perhaps even before that. Her selling his watch that ended up back in his possession is kind of heartwarming, him trying to help her secretly.

I'm also intrigued what Solomon's story is leading to. Perhaps he will be a living example of his grandma's principle of placing importance on how wealth is gotten. He is using the landowner's property to exact revenge on Abe-san. Will he make his grandma proud or disappointed?

Little Mozasu is a scene-stealer haha. I'm excited about the older Noa. He looks hot LOL

Kim Min Ha's acting is western style - not overacting. She received acting awards and nominations for season 1 as noted here:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8888462/awards/?ref_=tt_awd

LMH's western/nuanced style of acting fits perfectly in the drama.

Comments about the ML and FL not behaving as expected of lead characters in kdramas is one of the reasons I wanted this drama removed from MDL. This is not strictly a kdrama. Sunja may be a fictional character but her story is based on several Korean women who lived in Japan for real. Thus, her story will not be as fairytale perfect as a perfectly fictional kdrama character. Same with Hansu. He is a unique character. I haven't watched a kdrama ML like him. One reason the book Pachinko became well-loved was because of its fleshed-out characters. They're not caricatures. They are flawed and made mistakes, did reprehensible things due to the circumstances they had to navigate. Readers and viewers are drawn to the historical context and the survival instinct of these characters. No matter what life threw at them, they found ways to survive. It's inspiring. And though the series sometimes deviates from the book to provide more drama as many adaptations do, the gist is maintained - this is a story of the will of a group of people to survive and thrive despite history failing them.

'hoping this happens

he fatally harmed himself after he found out who his real dad is

I bought the novel from amazon

I'm also curious about their story. Their fate was quickly dismissed in the novel. From Yangjin's remark, I gathered they became comfort women?

I also wish the drama series would expand on the backgrounds of Isak, Yoseb and Kyung Hee. Their fall from wealth and their exodus from Pyongyang would be at least as interesting as the Kanto earthquake.

When he found out who his real dad is, he was disgusted at being the son of a mobster, he fatally hurt himself later on

I watched this on Netflix

He is handsome, tall and, as Kim Go Eun said, he's got the tallest nose she has ever seen. I think the reason his antis keep undermining his acting talent is because he is definitely a winner in the looks department. In their warped minds, they can't let him win in the acting department too, so they keep attacking his acting. Too bad Hollywood has given its seal of approval for his acting talent as noted in the articles below. I think his main handicap in season 1 was his short screentime compared to other lead actors.

Lee Min Ho is listed in 2022 Emmy Predictions: Lead Actor (Drama Series)
https://www.goldderby.com/gallery/2022-emmy-predictions-lead-actor-drama-series/9-lee-pachinko/

“... Korean superstar #LeeMinHo, who is dashing & dastardly as Koh Hansu”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2022-05-12/the-2022-emmys-buzzmeter-here-comes-the-buzz

"Lee Min Ho Receives Rave Reviews For His Stunning Performance in Apple TV+’s ‘Pachinko’"
https://zapzee.net/2022/05/02/lee-min-ho-receives-rave-reviews-for-his-stunning-performance-in-apple-tvs-pachinko/

When LMH was tapped for this series, I thought he would play Isak, my favorite character in the book. But Isak is a short-lived character and would not be as challenging to play as Koh Hansu, though Steve Noh played him perfectly. Steve's acting in ep 2 made me bawl.

I suppose LMH was looking for a challenge and Koh Hansu certainly brought it on, with his tortured soul that prioritizes survival above everything else. LMH's nuanced and elegant acting perfectly brings Koh Hansu to life, his face devoid of emotions reflecting a hardened heart and soul but stopping short at making him a caricature of a mobster.

I think Koh Hansu serves as contrast to Sunja in terms of how a person deals with extreme adversities. He buckled in terms of the struggle for his soul, she did not. She kept facing difficulties head on and by sheer grit, prevailed without sacrificing her soul. She did not close her heart to love and was rewarded with the sincerest affection of a pure heart like Isak's. Koh Hansu was incredulous that Sunja would replace him with Isak. Too bad he threw away the chance at being sincerely loved. His greatest loss. Question for Season 2: is he regretting his decision?

I messaged you the title

LOL and as you can see, I also took your point about actors and their roles to heart. I agree with you, the inability of viewers to separate an actor from his roles strongly influences their feelings about him. I think in LMH's case, these two factors - inability to separate actor from roles and ENVY - are at play.

Having read the book long before it was made into a TV series, I was very much surprised when Lee Min Ho took the role of Koh Hansu. I think everyone who has watched the first season is very much aware that Koh Hansu is the drama's anti-hero. Season 1 details his heartbreaking journey from a sweet, hard-working young man to a hardened and ruthless businessman (or mobster). As far as I know, nobody is singing his adult character's praises. But just because LMH is playing an anti-hero doesn't mean people can't praise his acting. In fact, if you're hating Koh Hansu, it means LMH is successfully playing the character, much the same way when Orson Welles played Charles Kane and Al Pacino played Michael Corleone.

Learn to separate the actor from the role. LMH has been hated since Boys Over Flowers because people were not able to separate him from the abusive Goo Joon Pyo nor remember Goo Joon Pyo's transformation from a bully to a loving boyfriend.

Note, the very people who hated him for playing Goo Joon Pyo SO CONVINCINGLY are the very people who deny his acting skills. 'Boggles the mind.

Three ways:
1. When you click a username, you will see his/her profile. Click user's List and you will see his/her watched dramas. The drama scores are shown.
2. In the list of reviews for a drama, each review has a score.
3. Some users are sneaky enough not to list their watched dramas to hide their preferences, but they can give themselves away through their comments. For example, a hater who camped in an LMH drama section, attacking every positive comment, turned up in the drama section of an actor considered to be LMH's rival, singing the actor's praises.

if you check the watchlist of his haters (those who review his dramas with low scores, from 1.0 to 7.0), a lot of them are fans of actors who are considered his competition

Same here. I don't let scores influence my choice of dramas to watch. Instead, I watch the first few episodes, and the ending if already available. However, I'm aware that there are many viewers who depend on the scores to pick dramas to watch. So, it's frustrating to see good dramas get low scores as that means viewers could miss out on some good viewing.

Imdb is so bad. The list of actors sometimes does not make sense. I once saw a drama (can't remember the title), where the name of a voice actor came before the names of the leads. As far as the scores go, it's also a hit or miss. Actually, all scoring sites that are open to the public cannot be trusted. The fans will overrate the shows while the antis will downrate them. Integrity is irrelevant in social media.